Oil aroubd header pipe

I picked up an 1982 xj 550 over the winter and have been putting lots of TLC into it for this up comming season, its comming really good, I haven't had it out for a tear yet but I recently had a warm day so I started it up and let it run for a good 30 min to let it get hot. I noticed that around one of the header pipes I had a bit of oil smoking off. Now I'm not sure if it is comming from the valve cover and seaping down to the header pipe , or if it is blowing from around the header pipe it self (which doesn't make any sence) any way its just around one header pipe, the far right one when sitting on the bike......I would really like to get this looked at, does anyone have an idea of what I'm up against, is this a big serious expensive job or can it be fixed realitvley easy, I really like the bike and would hate to give up on it now. I'll post a pic soon!

Thanks, Aaron.

 

Welcome Aaron,
You are experiencing a leaking valve cover gasket.
If it were an internal leak, you would most likely be experiencing idle problems. Spring the money for a new rubber gasket and be done with it.
Chacal is our site parts guru, give him a shout.
Best of luck!

 

You will need the rubber/metal "donuts" that go on the bolts as well. The "donuts" are what actually push the cover against the gasket/head; the bolts have stop collars that limit how far they can be torqued down.

You didn't say how many miles on are on the bike; you should probably check your valve clearances while you have the valve cover off.

 

Thanks for the reply, by the sounds of things its not to serious and shouldn't cost me that much to fix....I am handy a bit but I think because of it being an older bike that I will let the local bike shop do this job ...then they can have a look around while the valve cover is off in case there are any other adjustments to do....thanks again !

 

Be careful with "the local bike shop." A lot of them are not really all that enthusiastic about working on older bikes; some of them simply don't have the knowledge or equipment. You can end up paying someone a WHOLE LOT of money to do something wrong or not at all. Make sure you know ahead of time what they are going to do and how much they are going to charge you for it.

 

I'm with Fitz, you are better served taking the time on this issue to get familiar with your machine. You will save a considerable amount of money doing this yourself. And I keep encountering folks that think the wrench monkey down at the shop knows what he is doing. 'Tis possible but I've had too much damage done by dealerships to ever bother going back to one.